


Adapting

by saintsaint



Category: Paranatural (Webcomic)
Genre: Gen, M/M, characters to be added as they show up, hm. how did i get here.
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-14
Updated: 2017-04-14
Packaged: 2018-10-18 21:56:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,426
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10625913
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/saintsaint/pseuds/saintsaint
Summary: Johnny isn't used to paying attention, but Max keeps breaking the patterns.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I've been reading Paranatural for years and somehow just now got slammed with feelings about Johnny Jhonny. Here, take them. Also this first bit is pretty much just un-beta'd summary; I wanted to try and get in Johnny's head and practice writing him, but I figured I'd just post it anyway, why not :)

Johnny isn’t used to paying attention.

His true-hearts forever boys came to him on their own, seeing his greatness from the get-go (some brat had taken the red crayon Johnny wanted, so Johnny has taught him a lesson in sharing during lunch -- sharing a  _ knuckle sandwich _ , haha kaPOW). Ollie, RJ, and Stephen expressed their admiration quickly and without unnecessary fanfare, and so quickly and without unnecessary fanfare was Johnny’s gang born. The rest of the kids in Mayview learned to stay out of his way; if they fail to, it doesn’t take that much from Johnny and the boys to remind them.

And it's not that school is easy, but he doesn’t need to give it that much focus to do okay. Sure, Johnny knows he could be doing better, but his moms know how hard it is for him just to sit still and listen for that long and if they’re content then so is he. Which isn’t to say he doesn’t try; paying a little more attention in his worst classes to bring home that B is worth it for the pride on their faces.

All in all, Johnny knows he hasn’t been doing life things  _ right _ , exactly, but he’s been doing life well enough to get by without having to think too hard about much of anything. So it’s rather a shock to him when, over the course of a school week, he finds himself chin deep in a bunch of weird, surreal junk that  _ demands  _ his attention.

The first is Max. _New kid_. Land-on-his-face kid. Make-fun-of-his-rad-hair kid. _Max_ , uncool rude dude making life more difficult for Johnny and his boys, just asking for a serious beat down in their very first interaction. And because of him Johnny has to spend the rest of the day covered in tomato soup -- which by the way isn’t even his favorite kind -- and misses first period science, which is actually a subject that Johnny has to work at a little bit, so the whole thing is _very_ not cool.

Not to mention, Max broke the friendship fusion. No one, but  _ no one _ , does that and just gets away with it.

So later Johnny calls him a coward -- which is, uh,  _ true _ , thanks -- and notices that that’s a weak point, a chink in new kid’s too-cool armor, and Johnny gets to beat him up. He has to admit that the kid’s got diesel moves, killer flips that Johnny himself would kill for. He considers it, but the kid gives him 50 cents with no complaints and getting to deal with the stress from the morning chills Johnny out, so he lets him be. Plus he’s got things to do, teachers to bribe.

So day one is weird, but not so weird that Johnny recognizes the deep, life-changing cracks in the patterns of Mayview and his own life. Day two is when things get a little messier than Johnny likes.

They have a pleasant meeting on the walk to school and exchange some friendly banter, which is a great cool-down after beating those Academy punks senseless for encroaching on their turf. But there’s a better cool-down than talk to be had and he and Ollie know it, at least -- it’s more violence. But then Max starts with the evasive actions, which is a definite kink in the way Johnny’s morning was supposed to go. And then shortly after there’s the sudden and unexplainable disappearance of Max from behind a possibly-kickable fence, him just zooping outta there like it’s nobody’s business -- like some kinda flying freak,  _ what.  _ Still, nobody gets to decide what Johnny’s business is but Johnny. So he and Ollie follow Max, Johnny’s rage building at the new kid not following the patterns he’s supposed to, because what the  _ what _ , kid’s squirrely and Johnny’s gonna get him. And get to the bottom of it, too, he supposes.

So Johnny steals Max’s stuff and smashes his scooter. It’s no big deal, but it makes him feel more in control and teaches a lesson to the kid who keeps running away and getting away. It’s good -- for a few minutes there things start to crystallize again, Johnny pulling the world back to the way it’s supposed to be with grit and grace.

But then Johnny notices the second thing, and with that the patterns seriously start to  _ crack _ .

At first, the collision of Johnny’s (admittedly thick) skull with actual rock  _ does  _ daze him. It takes him a minute or two to put together who and where he is, and even when he’s got those down the “what” and “how” refuse to come together in a way that makes sense. He knows he’d been riding the carcass of Max’s scooter as he fled the scene of its murder, and he knows that the way ahead of him had been clear -- and yet, the wrecked scooter had still somehow managed to skip like it hit a rock, yanked out from under him as fast as a loose tooth tied to a slamming door.

By the time Johnny comes back to himself, the older anime elf kid has reappeared. Johnny is distracted momentarily by blinding rage, as is his typical defense mechanism when he wakes up in an unfamiliar place, and in the moment it takes him to gather his thoughts and realize that Max and the anime elf are like… talking to thin air? the pointy-haired one claps his hands together with a thunderous noise.

Like, really thunderous -- the kind that used to rumble angrily across the sky and scare Johnny, making him crawl into his moms’ bed as a tot. And besides the thunder, there’s also lightning, springing from anime’s leg in a controlled, impossible arc. Johnny plays dead -- er, that is, he stays still for tactical reasons -- as Max and stormy elf boy seem to yell at and battle with some invisible force. The elf conjures clouds, rain, storm, casually, sharing them with Max -- and Max doesn’t act surprised.

So when Ollie arrives as backup, Johnny gratefully accepts his friend’s grounding, very real hand in helping him up and doesn’t bother chasing after Max and the freak. Instead he takes the day to think, and he takes the night to rest, and the next day he takes art class or whatever to talk it over with his boys.

They’re admittedly a bit hesitant to believe Johnny’s claims about the freaky supernatural-paranormal stuff going on, but Johnny’s taken the time to think it over and found no other explanations so they agree to stick with him and get to the bottom of it. While Stephen goes after lighting kid the rest of ‘em head to have a nice chat with young Max, something which goes well until it doesn’t. For a few hours everything returns to the pattern they’re used to: classes, detention, argument, police, fleeing the scene, crashing behind some bushes because technically they’re skipping, et cetera et cetera.

But that evening, as they head home after a what feels like a long day of battling the man, they’re all pulled back into the freaky stuff when Max and his pals have the gall to drive by them. ...Well, to be fair, they do technically chase after it, but they never expected to end up seeing floating people zooming through the air above the woods like it’s no big deal.

Johnny has had an extra day to think this magic junk through and try to figure things out, so he’s a little ahead of his boys and immediately goes to stop their panic. Pushing them back in the direction of home to chill and rest their brains a bit, Johnny reflects that there’s definitely some freaky stuff happening in Mayview. They have proof, but no explanations, and Johnny intends to set it all back to the way it’s supposed to as much for Ollie, Stephen, and RJ as for himself.

 

\---

 

Next morning at school, RJ, Ollie, and Johnny take a little time to mourn Stephen and his sacrifice even as they formulate a plan for the day. Fluffy-haired kid (Jeff, he thinks?) is a bust -- they carefully mark down that contact with Max does not equal friendship -- and then they have to separate for a few hours of edumacation before coming together again for gym class.

Johnny’s confident that they’ll be able to figure out more about the freaky stuff if they can just corner the other folks from the flying picture; after all, evidence begets explanations, yes? But their plans are further interrupted by the main subject in gym that day, which is to say, HITBALL.

There’s a glorious ten minutes or so of pure exhilaration where Johnny gets to pummel weaker kids with rubber projectiles for a grade, and for that little bit of time he forgets everything but the pattern: scoop, throw, the satisfying  _ bonk _ s and  _ k-pow _ s of ball-to-flesh contact with any nerd in his path. But then one of the nerds in his path turns out to be not just on his gym team, but on  _ Max’s  _ team. The floating one, that is. From… from last night? With the magic, he means.

Johnny gets pulled back into focusing on the mission, and with it on Max himself. With laser-like focus, Johnny hones in on the new kid -- hiding behind the bleachers talking to Suzy, and don’t even get Johnny  _ started  _ on Suzy -- not participating in the game. Thus, not participating in the realm Johnny has near-total control over. Thus, totally uncool, and totally open for Johnny to counterattack.

Ka- _ POW _ , the Golden Switch absolutely  _ slams  _ Max in the face, and Johnny feels a moment of the kind of control and victory he’s been missing lately as the other boy looks up at him and with a dumb look of shock on his dumb mug. Grinning, their crew start to pull him over, Johnny relishing the look on Max’s face as he submits to them with no chance of escape, no matter  _ how _ sick his flips are -- 

And then fluffy-haired Jeff, normally smiley, unobtrusive, and jingling with change ripe for the taking, absolutely rockets a ball Max’s way. Johnny feels his heart stop for a the first half of a second before Max ducks, and then feels his heart stop for the second half of it as the ball tears between him and his boys. It only narrowly misses them, instead smashing a huge hole in the bleachers directly behind Johnny’s best friends.

After that things get weird. Johnny’s attention is quickly torn in a few different directions at once: the game, Jeff’s friend Cody and his inability to stay still like a good target, some Student Council nerd approaching him and trying to tell him what to do, an admittedly neat plan from that surprisingly rebellious kid Dimitri, and then a brief but surging flame of rage that licks of Johnny’s spine when another ball comes rocketing towards Ollie and RJ.

Beneath all that, though, Johnny’s got half an eye on Max. It’s not just that he’s one of the capable few left on his team, and it’s not just the weird freaky stuff that’s been happening around him and his cohorts; it’s that for the first time, Johnny notices that the guy looks genuinely worried. And from there, Johnny’s mind starts to work in the background, puzzling at the very few expressions he’s seen on the new kid’s face.

Shockodile cheap shots and planned but noble sacrifices eliminate Ollie, RJ, Cody, and Dimitri. Harsh words cut into Johnny himself, shaking something down to his core, suddenly tearing at a piece of the pattern that Johnny has accepted as true and good for a very long time. 

It’s when he’s taking a few breaths to come back from Jeff’s criticisms that Max speaks to him. “Don’t let Nega-Jeff get too deep under your skin, okay?” he says, and Johnny snaps to look at him, eyes wide. “Everything else aside, caring about your jerk friends isn’t a flaw. It’s your sole redeeming quality.”

Johnny’s surprised for a moment, but then he grins. Fifteen seconds of banter back and forth, and Johnny musters up the courage to open his mouth and finally compliment the other boy. He avoids eye contact as he does it, feeling something like embarrassment as he tells Max that he hasn’t been a coward, that he’s been brave and that Johnny can respect that.

Even though he’s looking away as he says it, he still picks up on the tiny, genuine smile Max sends his way.

And then Max shoves him back, which is  _ hugely  _ confusing, because you’re not really supposed to shove people you respect? As Johnny’s processing this, Max moves ahead, springing forward and flinging a ball at Jeff’s last remaining teammate and leaving Johnny to stand there for a moment, nearly struck dumb.

Which is when Jeff pulls back for another rocket-throw, and like an  _ idiot  _ Max turns around to look at Johnny, shouting his name. Johnny’s heart skips another beat, panicking as his teammate faces him and ignores the awful danger on the other side of the court -- and then Max suddenly smiles at him, both anxious and confident at once but still a real, genuine smile, and Johnny feels his heart skip  _ again  _ in a way that’s somehow different.

Max tells him to look up; Johnny does. Instead of dodging the ball flying at him like he has all game, Max blocks it, taking the brunt of the shot to his arms, and sending it flying up in a near-perfect arc to come down in Johnny’s hands. Ollie helps Johnny up while the rest of the Burnhounds rush to take down Jeff, but Johnny barely notices because he’s looking at Max. Max who took the bullet for him, Max who hasn’t really smiled this whole week until he smiled at Johnny, and Max who is trying not to, but is definitely, definitely crying.

And what Johnny has noticed, now that he’s paying attention, is that the new kid -- that  _ Max  _ never really smiles like he means it, that Max would put himself in serious harm’s way to protect Johnny (even though Johnny himself has beaten the snot out of him), and that there’s something Johnny feels about all that and it’s not going to be good for Johnny’s nice, neat patterns.

Of course, still reeling from the apparent importance of these thoughts, Johnny notices the next two things: first, there’s something purple  and unreal attached to Max’s arm, and second: there’s something wrong with Johnny’s teeth.


End file.
